Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Learning About Area

We are learning to use simple units to measure and compare the area of shapes.
(We talk about area when we measure the size of a surface. 
It is the amount of space there is on a flat surface. )

We started by comparing two shapes drawn with chalk on the carpet, and had to guess which might have the largest area.


We worked with a buddy to brainstorm some ways we could measure the area, using non-standard units. Quite a few groups thought of using children, so that's what we did!


We decided on some rules for measuring:
  • keep the units inside the edges
  • don't overlap the units
  • count how many units we used
  • include the name of the unit when we talk about the measurement


 Shape A had the biggest area, as five children could fit inside, compared to Shape B which only fitted four children inside.

The next task was to measure the area of the cover of a book we have been using recently.
Each group chose a unit to use.






Something went wrong with this one!
Can you tell us what we need to do to measure it correctly?







1 comment:

  1. This is a great idea!

    Did you have to lay still for a long time?

    When we learn about shapes, we will ask our teachers if we can maybe make the shapes with our bodies.

    We will see how many of us can fit in the shapes then.

    Bye buddies!

    Room 4 - Broadlands School

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